A Land of Fear (The Reign of Terror Episode 1)

The one where Ian is overpowered by a small boy...

The first few moments of A Land of Fear are highly representative of the episode as a whole - ponderous, pedestrian and hesitant. Director Henric Hirsch is in no rush to show anything happening, and when he does he's in no hurry to move on. It feels like an age between the episode beginning and anything actually happening on screen. There's plenty of plinky-plonky music, then a couple of random men cross the screen at a distance (almost as if by mistake!), then we're shown various bushes before the TARDIS fades silently into view at last.

And sadly, Hirsch never really gets out of first gear. There's a nice little scene in the TARDIS where Ian cleverly persuades the Doctor to join he and Barbara for a farewell drink, as the Doctor believes he's got them back to 20th century Earth. Quite why he thinks this is possible is a little vague, but on first appearances, the view outside does indeed look very English. In fact, as Barbara says, it looks like Somerset.

Outside our heroes encounter a small boy scrabbling about in the bushes, which leads to a quite odd performance from young Peter Walker. The boy stares gormlessly at William Hartnell throughout almost the entire scene, irrespective of who is actually speaking to him or asking him questions. It's as if Hirsch instructed Walker to look at the Doctor as his main focus point, but Walker then refuses to look at anything else! Still, it's amusing to see grown man Ian knocked flying to the ground by a little French boy!

There's a scene between Ian and Barbara at around the eight-minute mark where they discuss whether they think they're back home or not, and William Russell and Jacqueline Hill stand so close to each other, and look at one another so adoringly, that you'd be forgiven for thinking it's all leading up to a passionate kiss. Their eyes regard one another almost lustfully (especially Russell) and their proximity feels more of a performance choice than a directorial one. Yet again, we're given a strong hint of the feelings these two characters may well have for one another, beneath the surface. You sometimes hear fans saying there was never any evidence of a romance between Ian and Barbara in the show itself, but scenes like this come closest to proving that viewpoint wrong.

As the TARDIS team explores the ramshackle farmhouse set, Russell gets a frog in his throat and suffers a coughing fit that instantly made me wonder if he was re-enacting the scene from Hidden Danger when Ian is poisoned. But no, this time Russell really does have a cough to clear!

Halfway through the episode it's established that they're definitely not in 20th century France, but the 18th century, during the reign of terror. Susan finds a chest full of period clothes and she, Ian and Barbara decide to change into them. I'm not sure why, perhaps they've just developed a liking for period costumes on their travels. Ian maintains it's so they don't look so conspicuous when they go back to the TARDIS, but I think we know what it actually means - that they're not going to get back to the TARDIS any time soon, and we're stuck in revolutionary France for the next few weeks. It's also a blatant act of theft on their part.

Upstairs, the Doctor is knocked unconscious and we don't see him again for over six minutes, but we do learn from Susan that the French Revolution is his favourite period in Earth history. Why? It's not exactly our proudest moment! Even the back of the DVD says it is a time of "great upheaval, bloodshed and terror"! What a sadist he is!

Downstairs, we meet Rouvray and the rather jittery D'Argenson. Actually, D'Argenson is quite annoying: he's fretful and anxious, and to be honest a real liability if you're on the run. I realise his entire family's been executed, and I sympathise with him (let's be honest, nobody else seems to), but he just needs to chill out a bit and pull himself together.

Barbara tells the rather more level-headed Rouvray that they are not French, which begs the question of how he couldn't tell that himself. We know now that the TARDIS translates foreign and alien languages automatically for those that travel in it, but surely it doesn't translate their English into French for Rouvray to understand? From his perspective, are they not speaking English? It's all very confusing, so it's probably best to gloss over it, just like the series has been doing for over 50 years...

As the episode plods gradually to a climax, Rouvray is shot at almost point blank range (I think it'd be a bit messier than that in real life!), D'Argenson is shot off-camera (at least he's at peace with his loved ones now), and Ian, Susan and Barbara are carted off as prisoners, to be guests of Madame Guillotine!

As for the Doctor, he's left behind in a farmhouse set ablaze by cackling revolutionaries, and Hartnell really does milk this for all it's worth. Despite the fact we can actually hear the smoke machine hissing into life just off-camera, and there are no flames anywhere near the actor, Hartnell's energetic performance somehow makes it feel quite real and dangerous. He overdoes it a bit, but his desperate spluttering, wailing and flailing make it look like he's genuinely in distress!

A Land of Fear is a blandly directed and quite poorly edited episode (there are a few choppily edited shots which appear for a split second for no apparent reason), and nothing very much happens in Dennis Spooner's plot. We're not introduced to any new characters of importance (of all the guest cast, only Peter Walker's small boy is seen again) and the entire 25 minutes serves to basically establish where and when they are. The plot will have to wait until next week, obviously.

First broadcast: August 8th, 1964

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: I was quite impressed with the little model of the farmhouse on fire, but that's about it!
The Bad: The direction. Doctor Who was only Hirsch's third job, and you can tell he's inexperienced, and perhaps lacking investment too.
Overall score for episode: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Guests of Madame Guillotine...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Guests of Madame Guillotine (episode 2); A Change of Identity (episode 3); The Tyrant of France (episode 4); A Bargain of Necessity (episode 5); Prisoners of Conciergerie (episode 6)

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-reign-of-terror.html

The Reign of Terror is available on DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Reign-Terror-DVD/dp/B00AHHVQWW